Yvon Chouinard’s Straw House

30% rule has been more like 50% in the Bay Area for a long time. Not saying that’s a good thing, but there it is. Still, Ventura isn’t SF, though I would guess those coastal communities are pretty high-rent.

ETA: Ventura wasn’t classy when I lived in Santa Barbara, but that was a long, long time ago.

The cost of providing services to single-family suburbs is quite a bit higher than for high density housing.

Maintenance costs for roads, water, sewer, etc are typically paid for by fees charged to developers building new suburbs, kicking the can down the road & essentially creating a Ponzi scheme. Then there’s the problem with funding schools, fire, police, etc with a low density tax base. Then there’s the problem of skyrocketing home insurance.

And then there’s the problem of growth & housing costs…corporate hedge funds buying homes & driving up costs. NIMBYs in single family housing fighting against higher density housing, to protect their home values. My neighbors in Bend nearly stroked out panicking about an apartment complex someone wanted to build nearby.

Complex issues, that people like you & me should be arguing about over a campfire, sipping on lattes made by baristas we did or did not tip.

They will NOT be solved for us by billionaires.

Unless Chouinard has figured how to build roads, water, sewer, and electrical infrastructure using straw bales. Or how to pay teachers & firefighters & cops with straw bales.

If he really wants to be useful; how about inventing a car made of straw bales? Call it the “Hee Haw”, and go up against Tesla. At least it would drastically lower the cost of body repairs…maybe our auto insurance rates would stop skyrocketing too.

The only thing he’s invented here is another way to make money for himself & extract more adoration from fanboys.

Lol. Indeed.

I'd just bring my machine with me this time, in my RV. You can sleep outside :-D Hahahaha. But I'll make you a latte.

I like my neighbors far away. I know they are there, but we have trees between us ;-)

Lol......oh the people who will never know our inside track ;-) Man, did we get fiesty that night. Too bad that campground washed away in 2006!